World Town Planning Day 2023!

First celebrated in 1949 in Buenos Aires, #WorldTownPlanningDay celebrates global planning and planning every year on 8th November. This year’s theme is ‘Learn Globally, Apply Locally’, and focuses on the value of learning from planning and planning cultures globally, fostering innovative, sustainable and equitable solutions to address global challenges.

This year, LEP’s Planning Team tells us what planning means to them, and how they try to incorporate global perspectives at the local scale in their own work:

Keeping with this theme – aptly tied to World Town Planning Day’s 2023 focus on Learn Globally, Apply Locally’ – Planning Partner Nathan Anthony notes that “many countries that I’ve travelled to have a more simplified planning system than the UK, which in some cases is currently failing the environmental responsibility that we as planners have to acknowledge. It’s important that we set an example for others to follow, and an agenda that recognises the climate challenges being experienced around the world.”

Senior Planner Elouise Mitchell takes this year’s theme ‘Learning Globally, Applying Locally’ one step further: “looking at examples elsewhere allows us to think bigger than the standard practice in our local area, and encourages us not to be afraid to challenge the norm.” As a team, continuous learning is crucial, and at LEP we believe that identifying and responding to learning opportunities should result in adaptive processes that have sufficient flexibility to change in response to prevailing circumstances, across different spatial scales.

As a team, LEP’s Planners are dynamic in their approach to work and for each this ‘buzz’ is a key draw of what keeps them engaged in the profession. LEP Associate, Reece Lemon notes that “whilst legislation and policy is at the forefront of planning, subjectivity is a regular theme in the assessments that we have to make. This often requires creative thinking and the ability to challenge traditional methods or ways of thinking, which I really enjoy”.

For LEP Planner Shannon Burgess the enjoyment of planning comes from the challenge of exploring and considering the various factors involved in planning to help clients achieve their best outcome.

World Town Planning Day gives the opportunity to reflect on the importance of planning in shaping our countryside, towns, and cities.

The Lee Evans Planning Team.  Left to right:  Reece Lemon, Nathan Anthony, Shannon Burgess, Buttercup, and Elouise Mitchell

LEP’s Planning Team offers a wide range of planning related services with a principal aim of delivering client’s building aspirations to negotiate the legislative and policy-based requirements of planning authorities, providing innovative and pragmatic solutions. Our team of planning consultants hold many years’ experience in both the public and private sector, across a broad range of projects, from educational establishments, to industrial facilities, heritage projects, health care and residential properties.  If you require any planning advice, please do contact our team who would be happy to assist.